KARACHI: The post-Hajj flight operation will commence from August 27 and the first flight carrying 327 pilgrims will land at Islamabad International Airport.
According to a spokesman of Ministry of Religious Affairs, the operation will be completed on September 25 with return of all the pilgrims from Saudi Arabia.
On the first day of post-Hajj operation, total 950 pilgrims aboard four flights would reach Islamabad and Peshawar.
Some 240 pilgrims would reach Peshawar through Saudi Arabian Airline while PIA would…

MAKKAH: Imam-e-Kaaba Sheikh Hussein bin Abdelaziz Al al-Sheikh while addressing over two million faithful at Arafat from Masjid-e-Nimra urged the faithfuls not to do anything which is prohibited by their states.
He urged the Muslims to keep fearing Allah, adopt piety and not to associate Him with anyone. Those fearing Allah remains on the right path, he added.
The Imam said the one who adopts piety succeeds in his/her life.
Earlier, the annual ceremony of changing Ghilaf-e-Kaaba was held at the Grand Mosque of…

MECCA: More than two million Muslims from around the globe on Sunday started the hajj pilgrimage at Islam's holiest sites in Saudi Arabia, one of the world's largest annual gatherings.
The ultra-conservative kingdom, which is undergoing dramatic social and economic reforms, has mobilised vast resources for the six-day journey, one of the five pillars of Islam.
"It's the dream of every Muslim to come here to Mecca," Frenchman Soliman Ben Mohri said.
"It's the ultimate journey. What worries me is the return to my…

Lost in translation? Not in Mecca, thanks to a dedicated squad of interpreters gearing up to help two million Muslims speaking dozens of languages at the annual hajj pilgrimage.
The six-day hajj, which starts on Sunday, is one of the five pillars of Islam, an act all Muslims must perform at least once if they have the means to travel to Saudi Arabia.
Most of the world's Muslims do not speak Arabic -- Indonesia is home to the largest Muslim community by population, while tens of millions of the faithful are native…

RIYADH: Qatar has accused Saudi Arabia of barring its citizens from this year’s Hajj, something Riyadh denies, saying a diplomatic dispute is not stopping Qataris from making the pilgrimage to Makkah.
Although 1,200 Qataris are eligible to perform the haj under a quota system, Qatar says it has become impossible to get permits, blaming the campaign by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to cut trade and diplomatic ties with the country.
Abdullah Al-Kaabi of the state-run Qatar National Human…

RIYADH: Mansour al-Amer swipes a card to reveal a narrow sleep pod, reminiscent of Japan's famed capsule hotels. But this pod is in Saudi Arabia, where the Muslim hajj pilgrimage begins Sunday.
The kingdom has plans to introduce capsule rooms in the western city of Mina in the coming days, as an estimated two million Muslim faithful gather for the six-day hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam.
The free nap pods are part of new measures Saudi Arabia is rolling out this year in a bid to modernise the centuries-old…